Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language translation, and audio compression/decompression inventions 03/07

20070073530 - Electronic device equipped with a voice user interface and a method in an electronic device for performing language configurations of a user interface: The invention relates to an electronic device, which includes a voice user interface (VUI), speech-recognition devices (SR) for implementing the voice user interface (VUI), and memory (MEM), in which language-configuration data is arranged for the user interface (VUI, UI), including several language packages (LP1-LP9), in which packages (LP1-LP9) several languages... Agent: Harrington & Smith, PC

20070073531 - Intentional-stance characterization of a general content stream or repository: Starting with a dictionary including concepts and chains, a subset of the chains is selected as intentional stance basis chains (ISBCs). Concepts in the dictionary are chosen and mapped to state vectors using the ISBCs. The state vectors are assembled into a template, and an action and threshold distance are... Agent: Marger Johnson & Mccollom, P.C. - Novell

20070073534 - Corpus expansion system and method thereof: A system and method for expanding new sample seeds to automatically expand corpora, in which sample seeds are used to collect corpus is provided. The new sample seeds are generated based on the already existed sample seeds and collected corpora; The corpus expansion strategy is determined based on all the... Agent: Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser, P.C.

20070073533 - Systems and methods for structural indexing of natural language text: A structural natural language index is created by segmenting documents within a repository into text portions and extracting named entity, co-reference, lexical entries, structural-semantic relationships, speaker attribution and meronymic derived features. A constituent structure is determined that contains the constituent elements and ordering information sufficient to reconstruct the text portion.... Agent: Sughrue Mion, PLLC

20070073532 - Writing assistance using machine translation techniques: A system is configured to provide writing assistance within a monolingual input environment based on statistical machine translation techniques typically utilized to translate from an input language to a different target language.... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070073535 - Synchronizing a channel codec and vocoder of a mobile station: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for maintaining a vocoder and channel codec in substantial synchronization. The method may include receiving a configuration message that includes rate information and an effective radio block identifier at a mobile station, coding a current radio block via a vocoder and... Agent: Trop Pruner & Hu, PC

20070073536 - Methods and systems for touch-free call origination: Methods and systems to enable touch-free call origination using a communication device equipped with a microphone. The method comprises processing a first microphone signal at the device in an attempt to detect a spoken activation command potentially contained therein. Responsive to detection of a spoken activation command in the first... Agent: Fetherstonhaugh - Smart & Biggar

20070073537 - Apparatus and method for detecting voice activity period: An apparatus and method for detecting a voice activity period. The apparatus for detecting a voice activity period includes a domain conversion module that converts an input signal into a frequency domain signal in the unit of a frame obtained by dividing the input signal at predetermined intervals, a subtracted-spectrum-generation... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20070073538 - Discriminating speech and non-speech with regularized least squares: Sound discrimination techniques are disclosed that can be employed, for example, in the task of discriminating speech and non-speech in a noisy environment and other noise classification applications. In one particular embodiment, a classifier system is provided that includes a linear Regularized Least Squares classifier used directly on a high-dimensional... Agent: Honda/fenwick

20070073539 - Speech recognition method and system: A speech recognition method comprising the steps of: storing multiple recognition models for a vocabulary set, each model distinguished from the other models in response to a Lombard characteristic, detecting at least one speaker utterance in a motor vehicle, selecting one of the multiple recognition models in response to a... Agent: Anthony Luke Simon General Motors Corporation

20070073540 - Apparatus, method, and computer program product for speech recognition allowing for recognition of character string in speech input: A speech recognition apparatus includes a generation unit configured to receive a speech utterance and to generate at least one recognition candidate associating to the speech utterance and a likelihood of the recognition candidate; a storing unit configured to store at least the one recognition candidate and the likelihood; a... Agent: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

20070073541 - Method for compressing dictionary data: The invention relates to pre-processing of a pronunciation dictionary for compression in a data processing device, the pronunciation dictionary comprising at least one entry, the entry comprising a sequence of character units and a sequence of phoneme units. According to one aspect of the invention the sequence of character units... Agent: Hollingsworth & Funk, LLC

20070073542 - Method and system for configurable allocation of sound segments for use in concatenative text-to-speech voice synthesis: Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for synthesizing concatenative speech by allocating speech segments based upon their frequency of access during speech synthesis and storing frequently used speech segments in memory where they can be easily and quickly accessed. Speech data is recorded... Agent: Carey, Rodriguez, Greenberg & Paul, LLP Steven M. Greenberg

20070073543 - Supported method for speech dialogue used to operate vehicle functions: A support method for speech dialogs for operating motor vehicle functions by means of a speech dialog system for motor vehicles in which a non-speech signal is output in addition to the speech output. Speech dialog systems, which form an interface for communication between man and machine, are disadvantageous when... Agent: Crowell & Moring LLP Intellectual Property Group

20070073544 - Localization of prompts: Localized prompt statements. For each prompt statement to be executed, identifying a resource string that corresponds to a variable associated with the prompt statement permits retrieval of one or more localized media files. For example, the media files may provide for playing spoken prompts in a localized language. Executing the... Agent: Senniger Powers (msft)

20070073545 - Receiving device and method: A receiving device exhibits a high communication quality even if having a small time complexity and a small space complexity. The receiving device includes an interference event detecting means for detecting that a predetermined interference event to interfere with using of the encoded element periodic signals packed in the transmission... Agent: Venable LLP

20070067152 - Method and system for universal translating information: One embodiment pertains to a method of transferring information. The method includes receiving a request for displayed information on a first device and forming a meta-language message based on the displayed information. The method also includes transferring the meta-language message to a handheld device and converting the meta-language message to... Agent: Min, Hsieh & Hack LLP C/o Portfolioip

20070067153 - Morphological analysis apparatus, morphological analysis method and morphological analysis program: The morphological analysis apparatus according to the present invention, comprises a spelling recovery unit that recovers the spellings of words, a morphological analysis candidate generation unit that segments a word sequence composed of words, the spellings of which have been recovered, into morphemes, appends POS tags to the morphemes and... Agent: Rabin & Berdo, PC

20070067154 - Language translation system: A language translation system and method. The system comprises a server. The server comprises a file system within a memory device. The file system comprises a directory comprising a plurality of subdirectories. The server apparatus receives a data file in a first language. The data file is stored in the... Agent: Schmeiser, Olsen & Watts

20070067156 - Recording medium for recording automatic word spacing program: Disclosed is a recording medium for recording an automatic word spacing program for a short message. The recording medium includes a learning module and a classification module. The learning module creates a rule database by using a rule-based learning model, and creates an error case library by using a memory-based... Agent: Dilworth & Barrese, LLP

20070067155 - Surface structure generation: A deep structure is received. A multistage, surface structure, generation process is used to determine one or more concepts, phrases, and words from the deep structure.... Agent: Mannava & Kang, P.C.

20070067157 - System and method for automatically extracting interesting phrases in a large dynamic corpus: A phrase extraction system combines a dictionary method, a statistical/heuristic approach, and a set of pruning steps to extract frequently occurring and interesting phrases from a corpus. The system finds the “top k” phrases in a corpus, where k is an adjustable parameter. For a time-varying corpus, the system uses... Agent: Samuel A. Kassatly Law Office

20070067158 - Distributed telephone conference with speech coders: In order to simplify the setup of telephone conference with distributed conference devices, each conference participant applies speech encoding to its own speech signal in order to reduce the bandwidth of its speech signal thus that the bandwidth compressed speech signal shows at least half of the bandwidth of the... Agent: Ericsson Inc.

20070067161 - Electronic talking pet collar: A pet collar with a voice recognition unit. The voice recognition unit can process words spoken by a user, and then generate audible words or phrases that are emitted from a speaker of the collar. By way of example, a user may say “FETCH” and the dog collar may generate... Agent: Irell & Manella LLP

20070067160 - Microphone with projector controller: A microphone with projector controller (working with a receiving device) is disclosed. The microphone of the present invention comprises a body, a processing unit, a sound collecting device, an analog-to-digital converter, a control unit and a transmitter. The processing unit is disposed inside the body. The sound collecting device is... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Berner, LLP

20070067159 - Monitoring, mining, and classifying electronically recordable conversations: Conversations that take place over an electronically recordable channel are analyzed by constructing a set of features from the speech of two participants in the conversation. The set of features is applied to a model or a plurality of models to determine the likelihood of the set of features for... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070067162 - Audio signal encoding or decoding: Encoding an audio signal is provided wherein the audio signal includes a first audio channel and a second audio channel, the encoding comprising subband filtering each of the first audio channel and the second audio channel in a complex modulated filterbank to provide a first plurality of subband signals for... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20070067163 - Method and apparatus for extending the bandwidth of a speech signal: A bandwidth extension module, and an associated method and computer-readable medium, suitable for use in artificially extending the bandwidth of a lowband speech signal. The bandwidth extension module comprises a band-pass filter configured to produce a band-pass signal from the lowband speech signal; at least one carrier frequency modulator, each... Agent: Fetherstonhaugh - Smart & Biggar

20070067164 - Circuits, processes, devices and systems for codebook search reduction in speech coders: An electronic circuit (1100) includes storage circuitry (1120) and a speech coder (1110) coupled with the storage circuitry (1120) to have a codebook (430) with sets of track location numbers for respective pulses, the speech coder operable to identify a group of track location numbers (FIGS. 21-23) in the codebook... Agent: Texas Instruments Incorporated

20070067165 - Correlation domain formant enhancement: A method for enhancing prediction coefficient signals, including: a) receiving a set of prediction coefficient signals; b) generating a set of bandwidth expanded coefficient signals based on like prediction coefficient signals; c) converting at least some of like prediction coefficient signals and like bandwidth expanded coefficient signals into corresponding autocorrelation... Agent: Plevy & Howard & Darcy P.C.

20070067166 - Method and device of multi-resolution vector quantilization for audio encoding and decoding: The present invention provides a method and device of multi-resolution vector quantization (VQ) for audio encoding and decoding used to analyze the audio signal in multi-resolution and quantize the vectors of them. Said method for encoding audio comprises the steps of: adaptively filtering a input audio signal so as to... Agent: J C Patents, Inc.

20070067167 - Method and apparatus of spectral estimation: A spectrum of a set of samples from a data stream of sampled data is estimated until a targeted signal to noise ratio is achieved.... Agent: Agilent Technologies Inc.

20070067168 - Method and device for transcribing an audio signal: In the case of a method for transcribing an audio signal (AS) containing signal portions (SP) into text containing text portions (TP) for a document (DO), this document (DO) being envisaged for the reproduction of information, this information corresponding at least in part to the text portions (TP) obtained through... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20070067169 - Method for arbitrating audio data output apparatuses: A method for arbitrating audio output apparatuses used in a portable electronic device has audio output apparatuses comprising a speaker and a receiver is provided. When an application program executed in the electronic device generates audio data, the method initially determines the application program type. Then, either the speaker or... Agent: Fish & Richardson PC

20070067170 - Method for identifying people: The invention relates to a method for identifying people, whereby a person is identified by comparing an electric signal derived from a sound produced by the person with a stored signal of the above kind. The invention is characterized in that the signals to be compared are derived from the... Agent: Friedrich Kueffner

20070067171 - Updating hidden conditional random field model parameters after processing individual training samples: A method and apparatus are provided for training parameters in a hidden conditional random field model for use in speech recognition and phonetic classification. The hidden conditional random field model uses parameterized features that are determined from a segment of speech, and those values are used to identify a phonetic... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070067172 - Method and apparatus for performing conversational opinion tests using an automated agent: A method and apparatus for performing a conversational opinion test using a human tester and an automated agent (e.g., a computer program). The human tester and the automated agent advantageously converse by following a pre-defined script. A network simulation box, interposed between the human tester and the automated agent, advantageously... Agent: Lucent Technologies Inc. Docket Administrator

20070067173 - Unsupervised data-driven pronunciation modeling: Pronunciation for an input word is modeled by generating a set of candidate phoneme strings having pronunciations close to the input word in an orthographic space. Phoneme sub-strings in the set are selected as the pronunciation. In one aspect, a first closeness measure between phoneme strings for words chosen from... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070067174 - Visual comparison of speech utterance waveforms in which syllables are indicated: Speech utterance waveforms are visually compared in which syllables are indicated, such as in color. A speech utterance from a first user and a corresponding speech utterance from a second user are recorded. The phones, or phonemes, of each speech utterance are segmented, and these phones are mapped to the... Agent: Frederick W. Gibb, Iii Mcginn & Gibb, PLLC

20070061128 - System and method for networked decision making support: The present invention provides systems and methods for decision making support. The decision making support can be used, for example, for help desk troubleshooting, medical diagnosis, financial planning, and expert device. The decision support system of the invention includes a processor and a memory having a decision support program module,... Agent: Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC

20070061129 - Localization of embedded devices using browser-based interfaces: Systems and methods for interfacing with a management console for an embedded system are provided. The management console is presented to a browser application in a client device using a markup language, such as HTML. HTML data transmitted to the browser application is filtered before being displayed to the user.... Agent: Macpherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP

20070061130 - Multi-purpose context generator: A method of facilitating calculations of the changes in three mutually dependent variables, in which an initial condition of all the variables is represented by a triangle, calculated changes are then displayed by modifying the triangle, and the modified form of the triangle then provides a new basis for further... Agent: Gene W. Arant

20070061131 - Japanese virtual dictionary: Methods for converting a source character string to a target character string are described herein. In one aspect of the invention, an exemplary method includes receiving a first character string having the source character string, dividing the first character string into a plurality of sub-strings, converting the plurality of the... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070061132 - Dynamically generating a voice navigable menu for synthesized data: Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for dynamically generating a voice navigable menu for synthesized data, including determining a logical structure for a menu in dependence upon the synthesized data, creating a menu having the determined logical structure and at least one menu entry representing a portion of the synthesized... Agent: International Corp (blf)

20070061133 - Recording/reproduction apparatus and recording/reproduction method: An apparatus for recording and reproducing image data to which audio data is attached includes an extracting unit adapted to extract a specific audio or voice signal from audio data, a recording unit adapted to record the specific audio or voice signal in relation to image data, and a reproducing... Agent: Cowan Liebowitz & Latman P.C. John J Torrente

20070061134 - Multi-pass echo residue detection with speech application intelligence: Echo residue is detected using speech application data. The echo residue is detected using a method that includes correlating audio data from an input channel with audio data from an output channel to obtain a correlation result. A determined value of the correlation result is compared with a predetermined threshold.... Agent: Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C

20070061135 - Optimized windows and interpolation factors, and methods for optimizing windows, interpolation factors and linear prediction analysis in the itu-t g.729 speech coding standard: Alternate window optimization procedures and/or LSP interpolation factor optimization procedures are used to improve the ITU-T G.729 speech coding standard (the “Standard”) by replacing the window used by the Standard with an optimized window and/or replacing the LSP interpolation factor used by the standard with an optimized LSP interpolation factor.... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070061136 - Optimized windows and methods therefore for gradient-descent based window optimization for linear prediction analysis in the itu-t g.723.1 speech coding standard: Primary and alternate optimization procedures are used to improve the ITU-T G.723.1 speech coding standard (the “Standard”) by replacing the Hamming window of the Standard with an optimized window, with two windows, or with two windows and an additional performance of an autocorrelation method. When two windows replace the Hamming... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070061137 - Method for recovering frame erasure at voice over internet protocol (voip) environment: A method for recovering a frame erasure at a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) environment is provided. The method includes: extracting coder parameters of received packets; if an erased packet exists during the extracting of the coder parameters, regenerating speech characteristic parameters of the erased packet by referencing a vector... Agent: Ladas & Parry LLP

20070061138 - Quality and rate control strategy for digital audio: An audio encoder regulates quality and bitrate with a control strategy. The strategy includes several features. First, an encoder regulates quantization using quality, minimum bit count, and maximum bit count parameters. Second, an encoder regulates quantization using a noise measure that indicates reliability of a complexity measure. Third, an encoder... Agent: Klarquist Sparkman LLP

20070061139 - Interactive speech correcting method: An interactive speech correcting method is provided. The method includes the steps of (a) providing a reference speech, (b) receiving a user speech, (c) analyzing the user speech and the reference speech, (d) creating a speech parameter, (e) proceeding a speech correction by using the speech parameter and the user... Agent: Volpe And Koenig, P.C.

20070061140 - Collation regression testing: A method, data processing system, and computer usable code are provided for collation regression testing. Collation elements are extracted from a locale seed file into an element list. A sorted list is generated from the element list both in a released product and an updated product that is being validated.... Agent: Ibm Corp (ya) C/o Yee & Associates PC

20070061141 - Anti-terrorism interoperable radio communications: A method for interoperable radio communications including the steps of: a) at least one radio user's transmitting at least one transmission on a first radio frequency to a computer having at least one sound card and at least two sound card channels on one or more sound cards, wherein each... Agent: The Webb Law Firm, P.C.

20070061142 - Audio, video, simulation, and user interface paradigms: Consumer electronic devices have been developed with enormous information processing capabilities, high quality audio and video outputs, large amounts of memory, and may also include wired and/or wireless networking capabilities. Additionally, relatively unsophisticated and inexpensive sensors, such as microphones, video camera, GPS or other position sensors, when coupled with devices... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP

20070061143 - Method for collating words based on the words' syllables, and phonetic symbols: This invention is the method of collating words of Indo-European languages by using a special mark for the space between syllables and the languages' phonetic symbols, to produce word lists in which the listed words' articulations of syllables and phonemes are arranged sequentially as close to each other phonetically as... Agent: Mark J. Wilson

20070061144 - Batch statistics process model method and system: A method is provided for process modeling. The method may include obtaining batch statistics data records associated with one or more input variables and one or more output parameters and selecting one or more input parameters from the one or more input variables. The method may also include generating a... Agent: Caterpillar/finnegan, Henderson, L.L.P.

20070061145 - Methods and apparatus for formant-based voice systems: In one aspect, a method of processing a voice signal to extract information to facilitate training a speech synthesis model is provided. The method comprises acts of detecting a plurality of candidate features in the voice signal, performing at least one comparison between one or more combinations of the plurality... Agent: Wolf Greenfield & Sacks, PC

20070061146 - Retrieval and presentation of network service results for mobile device using a multimodal browser: A method of obtaining information using a mobile device can include receiving a request including speech data from the mobile device, and querying a network service using query information extracted from the speech data, whereby search results are received from the network service. The search results can be formatted for... Agent: Cuenot & Forsythe, L.L.C.

20070061147 - Distributed speech recognition method: This invention relates to a distributed speech recognition method comprising at least one user terminal and at least one server which can communicate with each other by means of a telecommunication network. The inventive method comprises the following steps consisting in: at the user terminal, attempting to associate a saved... Agent: Grossman, Tucker, Perreault & Pfleger, PLLC

20070061150 - Data processing apparatus, data processing method, and computer program thereof: A data processing apparatus including a voice input unit adapted to input voice, an operating unit adapted to be operated by a user, a data processing unit adapted to process data according to voice inputted in the voice input unit or an operation of the operating unit, and a determination... Agent: Canon U.s.a. Inc. Intellectual Property Division

20070061148 - Displaying speech command input state information in a multimodal browser: Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for displaying speech command input state information in a multimodal browser including displaying an icon representing a speech command type and displaying an icon representing the input state of the speech command. In typical embodiments, the icon representing a speech command type and the... Agent: International Corp (blf)

20070061149 - Wireless multimodal voice browser for wireline-based iptv services: In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method selects a program from a library of programs. A user selection is determined based upon a voice command, and the program is presented at a display device in accordance with the voice command. In accordance with another aspect of... Agent: Paul S Madan Madan, Mossman & Sriram, PC

20070061151 - Method and system for tty routing assistance: A method for displaying routing instructions includes receiving routing instructions from a call center at a telematics unit via a wireless network, the received route comprising at least one voice instruction. The method further includes converting the at least one voice instruction to text, and displaying the routing instructions including... Agent: General Motors Corporation Legal Staff

20070061152 - Apparatus and method for translating speech and performing speech synthesis of translation result: A speech dialogue translation apparatus includes a speech recognition unit that recognizes a user's speech in a source language to be translated and outputs a recognition result; a source language storage unit that stores the recognition result; a translation decision unit that determines whether the recognition result stored in the... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C.

20070055489 - Method and system for supplying an automatic web content translation service: The invention relates to a method and system for supplying an automatic web content translation service. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of supplying translations of documents which are distributed by content providers (4) to numerous user terminals (11, 12, 13) by means of a data transmission network... Agent: Fish & Richardson P.c.

20070055490 - Computer application environment and communication system employing automatic identification of human conversational behavior: The disclosed technology is a computer application that establishes communication between a conversation-finder module and a computer application environment. The conversation-finder module determines a conversational floor based on three or more floor determination inputs. The conversational floor associates at least two of the three or more floor determination inputs as... Agent: Cascadia Intellectual Property

20070055494 - Communication device and communication method: A communication device and method is provided which enables effective voice communications. An error detection unit (102) within a base station device (100) detects transmission line errors of an encoded voice frame data from a terminal (200). A voiced-or-unvoiced discrimination unit (104) determines whether or not the encoded voice frame... Agent: Hogan & Hartson L.l.p.

20070055492 - Configurable grammar templates: To provide application developers with the ability to easily form customized grammars, grammar extensions are provided that allow application developers to selectively include portions of grammar templates and to easily combine grammar elements to form new grammar structures.... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070055496 - Language processing system: A language processing system including: a forbidden word memory part that stores a forbidden word; a sequence candidate generator that generates a plurality of word sequence candidates where each words are described separately from plain text; and a word sequence estimator that reads the forbidden word from the forbidden word... Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.c.

20070055491 - Method for apparatus for construction and use of an operational lexicon in process models and managing their synchronized representations: The primary component of the present invention is an automated method for transforming any suitably well-formed textual description of a process into a series of diagrammatic representations of that process. The secondary component of this invention is an automated method for transforming any of these diagrammatic representations into a corresponding... Agent: Reed Smith, LLP

20070055495 - Phrase input system and method thereof: A phrase input system and a method thereof that is applicable for a handwriting input apparatus is disclosed. The phrase input system comprises a database, an input unit, an output unit, an identification unit, and a comparison unit. The database stores a collection of phrases. The input unit is used... Agent: Jianq Chyun Intellectual Property Office

20070055493 - String matching method and system and computer-readable recording medium storing the string matching method: A string matching method, system, and a computer-readable medium storing instructions for determining and obtaining a representative string for a plurality of strings that are written in various manners but share the same meaning. The string matching method includes: converting the input string into one or more second-language strings with... Agent: Sughrue Mion, Pllc

20070055497 - Audio signal processing apparatus, audio signal processing method, program, and input apparatus: Audio signal processing apparatus is disclosed. The audio signal processing apparatus includes a first audio signal extracting section, a second audio signal extracting section, a sense-of-depth controlling section, a sense-of-sound-expansion controlling section, a control signal generating section, and a mixing section. The first audio signal extracting section extracts a main... Agent: Wolf Greenfield & Sacks, Pc

20070055498 - Method and apparatus for performing packet loss or frame erasure concealment: The invention concerns a method and apparatus for performing packet loss or Frame Erasure Concealment (FEC) for a speech coder that does not have a built-in or standard FEC process. A receiver with a decoder receives encoded frames of compressed speech information transmitted from an encoder. A lost frame detector... Agent: At&t Corp.

20070055499 - Adaptive voice detection method and system: A system for detecting a voice signal includes: a first integrator for receiving an input signal and for providing a first integrator output signal, wherein the first integrator includes a first attack time; a second integrator for receiving the input signal and for providing a second integrator output signal, the... Agent: Michael J. Buchenhorner

20070055500 - Extraction and matching of characteristic fingerprints from audio signals: An audio fingerprint is extracted from an audio sample, where the fingerprint contains information that is characteristic of the content in the sample. The fingerprint may be generated by computing an energy spectrum for the audio sample, resampling the energy spectrum logarithmically in the time dimension, transforming the resampled energy... Agent: Fenwick & West LLP

20070055503 - Optimized windows and interpolation factors, and methods for optimizing windows, interpolation factors and linear prediction analysis in the itu-t g.729 speech coding standard: Alternate window optimization procedures and/or LSP interpolation factor optimization procedures are used to improve the ITU-T G.729 speech coding standard (the “Standard”) by replacing the window used by the Standard with an optimized window and/or replacing the LSP interpolation factor used by the standard with an optimized LSP interpoltion factor.... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070055504 - Optimized windows and interpolation factors, and methods for optimizing windows, interpolation factors and linear prediction analysis in the itu-t g.729 speech coding standard: Alternate window optimization procedures and/or LSP interpolation factor optimization procedures are used to improve the ITU-T G.729 speech coding standard (the “Standard”) by replacing the window used by the Standard with an optimized window and/or replacing the LSP interpolation factor used by the standard with an optimized LSP interpolation factor.... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20070055501 - Packet detection: An apparatus for and a method of performing packet detection in a receiver is provided. The apparatus is configured to determine a measure of a correlation between information of one or more received symbols and synchronization information. The apparatus is also configured to determine a measure of an energy value... Agent: Christie, Parker & Hale, LLP

20070055502 - Speech analyzing system with speech codebook: Presented herein are systems and methods for processing sound signals for use with electronic speech systems. Sound signals are temporally parsed into frames, and the speech system includes a speech codebook having entries corresponding to frame sequences. The system identifies speech sounds in an audio signal using the speech codebook.... Agent: Fish & Neave Ip Group Ropes & Gray LLP

20070055507 - Low complexity noise reduction method: To reduce noise in an input signal that may contain speech, first an estimate of the noise level in the signal is obtained. The level of the input signal is then compared with the noise level estimate signal to determine whether speech is dominant. Less aggressive noise reduction is applied... Agent: Marks & Clerk

20070055508 - Method and apparatus for improved estimation of non-stationary noise for speech enhancement: A central aspect of the invention relates to a method of enhancing speech, the method comprising the steps of, receiving noisy speech comprising a clean speech component and a non-stationary noise component, providing a speech model, providing a noise model having at least one shape and a gain, dynamically modifying... Agent: Bingham, Mccutchen LLP

20070055506 - Method and circuit for noise estimation, related filter, terminal and communication network using same, and computer program product therefor: A filter such as a Wiener filter for noise reduction in a signal, such as a speech signal, affected by background noise includes a circuit for determining values of an update function relating new value of estimated noise power to a previous value of estimated noise power, the update function... Agent: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

20070055505 - Method and device for noise reduction: In one aspect of the present invention, a method to reduce noise in a noisy speech signal is disclosed The method comprises applying at least two versions of the noisy speech signal to a first filter, whereby that first filter outputs a speech reference signal and at least one noise... Agent: Jagtiani + Guttag

20070055509 - Single-codebook vector quantization for multiple-rate applications: This invention relates to a method, a device and a software application product for N-level quantization of vectors, wherein N is selectable prior to said quantization from a set of at least two pre-defined values that are smaller than or equal to a pre-defined maximum number of levels M. A... Agent: Ware Fressola Van Der Sluys & Adolphson, LLP

20070055510 - Concept for bridging the gap between parametric multi-channel audio coding and matrixed-surround multi-channel coding: The purpose of the invention is to bridge the gap between parametric multi-channel audio coding and matrixed-surround multi-channel coding by gradually improving the sound of an up-mix signal while raising the bit-rate consumed by the side-information starting from 0 up to the bit-rates of the parametric methods. More specifically, it... Agent: Glenn Patent Group

20070055512 - Compressed domain voice activity detector: The system and method of the present invention comprises a compressed domain voice activity detector that detects the presence or absence of voice activity in a digital input signal. The method includes converting a digital input signal into parametric data. The parametric data is subsequently analyzed, and then compared against... Agent: Plevy & Howard & Darcy P.c.

20070055511 - Method for recovering target speech based on speech segment detection under a stationary noise: Method for recovering target speech by extracting signal components falling in a speech segment, which is determined based on separated signals obtained through the Independent Component Analysis, thereby minimizing the residual noise in the recovered target speech. The present method comprises: the first step of receiving target speech emitted from... Agent: Pepper Hamilton LLP

20070055513 - Method, medium, and system masking audio signals using voice formant information: A method, medium, and system for masking voice information of a communication device. The method of masking a user's voice through an output of a masking signal similar to a formant of voice data may include dividing the voice data received into frames of a predetermined size, transforming the frames... Agent: Staas & Halsey LLP

20070055514 - Intelligent tutoring feedback: Methods and related computer program products, systems, and devices for providing intelligent feedback to a user based on audio input associated with a user reading a passage are disclosed. The method can include assessing a level of fluency of a user's reading of the sequence of words using speech recognition... Agent: Fish & Richardson Pc

20070055515 - Method for automatically matching graphic elements and phonetic elements: The invention derives automatically segmenting any graphic chain into graphemes and any phonetic chain into phonemes from transcriptions graphic chains (words) into phonetic chains. First probabilities (P(gi|pj)) of transcriptions of graphic elements into phonetic elements are estimated (E2). For each transcription of a given graphic chain with M graphic elements... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Berner, LLP

20070055516 - Speaker recognition apparatus, computer program for speaker recognition, and speaker recognition method: In a speaker distance calculation part of a speaker recognition apparatus, a quantization distance is obtained between a voice feature vector of a voice feature vector sequence produced from a voice of a speaker to be recognized and a representative vector of a codebook. The voice feature vector is quantized... Agent: Frishauf, Holtz, Goodman & Chick, Pc

20070055517 - Multi-factor biometric authentication: A method for verifying a person's identity in order to gain access to electronic data, a data network, a physical location, or enable a commercial transaction. A request for identity verification is processed over a data network and the system is initiated which (i) transmits a disposable pass phrase over... Agent: James D Ivey

20070055518 - Text editing and reproduction apparatus, content editing and reproduction apparatus, and text editing and reproduction method: A text editing and reproduction apparatus capable of maintaining the continuity of text data display and performing high-quality content reproduction. An ornament time information addition section adds ornament elapsed time which indicates elapsed time for ornament display of a text sample and which is display start time for a first... Agent: Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

20070055520 - Incorporation of speech engine training into interactive user tutorial: The present invention combines speech recognition tutorial training with speech recognizer voice training. The system prompts the user for speech data and simulates, with predefined screenshots, what happens when speech commands are received. At each step in the tutorial process, when the user is prompted for an input, the system... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070055519 - Robust bandwith extension of narrowband signals: A narrowband power spectrum is converted into a narrowband cepstral vector. A wideband cepstral vector is then estimated from the narrowband cepstral vector, where the wideband cepstral vector represents more frequency components than the narrowband cepstral vector.... Agent: Westman Champlin (microsoft Corporation)

20070055521 - Method and apparatus for inputting chinese characters: An electronic apparatus, to which Chinese characters can be input by using a phonetic input method, is disclosed. The electric apparatus comprises a plurality of input keys and a switch circuit. The plurality of input keys are divided into three groups: initial consonant keys, compound vowel keys, and medial vowel... Agent: Bruce H. Troxelll

20070055525 - Dynamic speech sharpening: An enhanced system for speech interpretation is provided. The system may include receiving a user verbalization and generating one or more preliminary interpretations of the verbalization by identifying one or more phonemes in the verbalization. An acoustic grammar may be used to map the phonemes to syllables or words, and... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20070055523 - Pronunciation training system: A pronunciation training system extracts pronunciation features from various pronunciation samples, links pronunciation features with corresponding muscle movements and diagram representations, displays related waveforms and pronunciation processes, and mark the differences between different waveforms and different pronunciation processes for helping a user to distinguish different sounds. First, the system collects... Agent: George L. Yang

20070055522 - Self-learning multi-source speech data reconstruction: A method integrates data from disparate speech recognition system data sources. The method includes receiving data from disparate speech recognition system data sources including a first speech recognition system data source and a second speech recognition system data source. The method also includes discovering rules that relate the data from... Agent: Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C

20070055524 - Speech dialog method and device: An electronic device (200) for speech dialog includes functions that receive (205, 105) an utterance that includes an instantiated variable (215), perform voice recognition (210, 115, 120) of the instantiated variable to determine a most likely set of acoustic states (220) and a corresponding sequence of phonemes with stress information... Agent: Motorola, Inc.

20070055527 - Method for synthesizing various voices by controlling a plurality of voice synthesizers and a system therefor: Disclosed is a voice synthesis system for performing various voice synthesis functions. At least one voice synthesizer synthesizes voices, and a TTS (Text-To-Speech) matching unit for controlling the voice synthesizer converts a text coming from a client apparatus into voices by analyzing the text. The system also includes a background... Agent: Dilworth & Barrese, LLP

20070055526 - Method, apparatus and computer program product providing prosodic-categorical enhancement to phrase-spliced text-to-speech synthesis: Disclosed is a method, a system and a computer program product for text-to-speech synthesis. The computer program product comprises a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, where the computer readable program when executed on the computer causes the computer to operate in accordance with a text-to-speech synthesis function... Agent: Harrington & Smith, LLP

20070055529 - Hierarchical methods and apparatus for extracting user intent from spoken utterances: Improved techniques are disclosed for permitting a user to employ more human-based grammar (i.e., free form or conversational input) while addressing a target system via a voice system. For example, a technique for determining intent associated with a spoken utterance of a user comprises the following steps/operations. Decoded speech uttered... Agent: William E. Lewis Ryan, Mason & Lewis, LLP

20070055531 - Speech recognition system: An audio operating unit of an audio apparatus is used for speech recognition. Specifically, when it is determined that a speech recognition start switch has been pressed, a speech recognition apparatus outputs a signal indicating volume down to a mute level to an audio-apparatus main body of the audio apparatus... Agent: Posz Law Group, Plc

20070055528 - Teaching aid and voice game system: A device of the invention is a simple, light-weight, universal, and portable voice activated teaching aid and/or game system that can be used by a person who for any reasons cannot distract his/her attention from a predetermined object, e.g., when fulfilling a long and monotonous work, or cannot use his/her... Agent: Dmitry Malyshev

20070055530 - Update data generating apparatus, update data generating method, update data generating program, method for updating speaker verifying apparatus and speaker identifier, and program for updating speaker identifier: It is to provide a speaker verifying apparatus and the like capable of updating the identifier of a registering speaker at a low cost, considering that voices change over time. An update data generating apparatus comprises functions of: inputting registering speaker's voice feature value data to the speaker identifier of... Agent: Sughrue Mion, Pllc

20070050182 - Translation quality quantifying apparatus and method: A system for automating the quality evaluation of a translation. The system may include a computer having a processor and memory device operably connected to one another. A source text in a first language may be stored within the memory device. A target text comprising a translation of the source... Agent: Pate Pierce & Baird

20070050183 - Navigation device with integrated multi-language dictionary and translator: A portable navigation device is provided that includes integrated language dictionary/translation features. The navigation device includes a user interface configured to enable an operator to enter navigation instructions as well as language dictionary/translation instructions. A receiver is provided that is configured to receive signals from global positioning system (GPS) satellites.... Agent: Garmin Ltd. C/o Garmin International, Inc.

20070050184 - Personal audio content delivery apparatus and method: To create an audio personal newspaper, descriptive information about newspaper articles (such as subject matter, author, source) is extracted from newspaper articles and the text of the newspaper articles is converted into audio files so the user can listen to the content of the newspaper articles. The audio newspaper can... Agent: Cooley Godward Kronish LLP Attn: Patent Group

20070050185 - Methods and apparatus for constructing graphs, semitic object networks, process models, and managing their synchronized representations: The primary component of the present invention is an automated method for transforming any suitably well-formed textual description of a process into a series of diagrammatic representations of that process. The secondary component of this invention is an automated method for transforming any of these diagrammatic representations into a corresponding... Agent: Reed Smith, LLP

20070050187 - Medical billing system and method: A probabilistic medical billing system and method using contextual data and inferential logic for use in screening accuracy of medical bill coding and for presenting results as probabilities or predictions of correctness. The probabilistic medical billing system and method is accomplished using the contextual information contained in a care givers'... Agent: Eric Robinson

20070050186 - Succession chinese character input method, electronic product for use in succession chinese character input method: A succession Chinese character input method comprising the steps of: (a) inputting a Chinese character, and (b) fetching succession Chinese characters relative to the inputted Chinese character from a database of vocabulary of common succession Chinese characters and/or a database of vocabulary of self-edited succession Chinese characters, (c) and/or displaying... Agent: Troxell Law Office PLLC One Skyline Place

20070050188 - Tone contour transformation of speech: Tonal transformation of speech is provided. A tone applicable to a syllable of received speech is determined. A tonal contour applicable to said tone for a dialect of a listener is determined, and the syllable of received speech is altered to have said determined tonal contour. The altered speech may... Agent: Sheridan Ross P.C.

20070050189 - Method and apparatus for comfort noise generation in speech communication systems: A method that may be used in variety of electronic devices for generating comfort noise includes receiving (705) a plurality of information frames indicative of speech plus background noise, estimating (710) one or more background noise characteristics based on the plurality of information frames, and generating a comfort noise signal... Agent: Motorola, Inc.

20070050190 - Voice recognition system and voice processing system: A voice recognition system and a voice processing system in which a self-repair utterance can be inputted and recognized accurately as in a conversation between humans in the case where a user makes the self-repair utterance are provided. An signal processing unit for converting speech voice data into a feature,... Agent: Armstrong, Kratz, Quintos, Hanson & Brooks, LLP

20070050191 - Mobile systems and methods of supporting natural language human-machine interactions: A mobile system is provided that includes speech-based and non-speech-based interfaces for telematics applications. The mobile system identifies and uses context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for users that submit requests and/or commands in multiple domains. The invention creates, stores and... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP